The women’s locker room in wrestling promotions have become just as competitive if not more than the male locker room. Past eras would see women having fewer spots and just being happy to be on the card. Each passing year changed that more and more with talents having a higher ceiling more and more leading to today’s boom in women’s wrestling.
Thunder Rosa and Britt Baker making news in AEW for the wrong reasons with their backstage drama is not the first time in any manner that this has happened. Each scenario is unique for its own reasons, but the story remains the same. On-screen rivals not getting along in real life can go either way from building huge interest to having things fall apart. The following women having an on-screen rival had real tension from backstage issues.
10 Britt Baker Vs Thunder Rosa
The careers of Thunder Rosa and Britt Baker will likely always be tied together due to their classic bloody match to help them both break out. Unfortunately, everything between the two on-screen has been overshadowed by their backstage feud.
Baker has taken a few public shots at Rosa after reports of her sandbagging opponents came out. Both women have made comments on social media to make it clear they don’t like each other. AEW’s women’s division has unfortunately never reached its full potential and drama like this does not help.
9 Nikki Bella Vs AJ Lee
AJ Lee and Nikki Bella were clearly the biggest names in WWE’s women’s division in the years before the NXT call-ups started the women’s evolution. Their characters were polar opposite on screen to create tension that mirrored their real-life heat.
Rumblings of the two disliking each other behind the scenes played out when Lee’s infamous worked shoot promo heavily insulted the Bella Twins referencing their relationships with top stars. Nikki felt disrespected by AJ’s promo to lead to more tension in their big promos or matches.
8 Becky Lynch Vs Nia Jax
Becky Lynch’s bloody face helped her create a star-making moment and visual during a big Raw vs Smackdown brawl. Nia Jax had a reputation for being one of the most unsafe workers of all time and was the one to injure Lynch’s face with a stiff shot.
Both women threw a lot of shade online with extremely personal insults depicting a merge of their backstage issues and on-screen drama. WWE didn’t have a big program between the two as it paid off with Becky eliminating Nia in the following Royal Rumble match.
7 Sunny Vs Sable
One of the first instances of issues in the women’s locker room for WWE saw Sunny and Sable hating each other. Both ladies were essentially fighting for the same spot as WWE’s top woman for big photo shoots and a top manager role.
Sunny has spoken out negatively about Sable for years feeling she was a phony backstage and an overrated performer. The two never had an in-ring feud like others on the list, but they often cut promos or competed against each other in bikini contests, especially on house shows.
6 Becky Lynch Vs Ronda Rousey
WWE is still hoping to draw money off the Becky Lynch vs Ronda Rousey feud that started four years ago. Lynch and Rousey were first scheduled to face at Survivor Series 2018 until Becky’s injury and massive momentum changed things.
The social media insults between the two grew personal to the point where Rousey said it’s no longer a storyline if Lynch mentions her husband again. Their promos set up a lot of interest, but WWE eventually added Charlotte Flair to make it a triple threat match.
5 Brie Bella Vs Maryse
WWE used a personal feud between two female performers years after their drama started to get some mileage out of it. Daniel Bryan and The Miz feuding when the former came out of retirement led to their wives adding another layer of real life storytelling.
Maryse and Maria Kanellis felt they had a pact to come back to WWE with the Bella Twins for the first season of Total Bellas until Nikki and Brie signed without telling them. WWE referenced this heat with Maryse sharing personal promos claiming that Brie blocked her return at that time to end their friendship.
4 Francine Vs Dawn Marie
ECW only used a handful of female performers at a time primarily in manager roles, so they all feuded with each other at some point. Francine and Dawn Marie were arguably the two most successful female ECW stars given their roles on the show.
This was another scenario of two people competing for the same top spot and it leading to drama. Dawn Marie claims that Francine bullied her when she first joined ECW due to not wanting other new women on the roster. There was even a slight incident of them exchanging words at ECW One Night Stand 2005 before WWE officials got involved.
3 Melina Vs Candice Michelle
The era of blogging started in the late 2000s for WWE talents to utilize that if they wanted. Melina and Candice Michelle saw their on-screen feud mixing with real-life instances of not liking the other backstage.
Michelle joining WWE without a wrestling background led to Melina taking aim at that in her blogs questioning passion. There were retorts from Candice that showed both sides not liking the other outside the ring. Both women deserve credit for still being professional to have matches without going overboard.
2 Sasha Banks Vs Alexa Bliss
Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss having a backstage feud stemmed from the same issues of Melina and Candice Michelle. Promos from Banks claimed that Bliss didn’t have passion for pro wrestler and didn’t even know who the Hardy Boyz were.
Even though Bliss did admit that she didn’t grow up a diehard fan, she did watch the product and that Banks was lying about the Hardy Boyz comment. The two clearly didn’t have a lot of love for each other going back to NXT, and it played out during their on-screen feud.
1 Becky Lynch Vs Charlotte Flair
WWE benefited from Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch’s drama becoming part of their on-screen feud. Lynch and Flair had that controversial moment of a title exchange where Charlotte seemingly threw a belt at Becky.
The feud played out at Survivor Series 2021 when the brand champions faced off on that event. WWE had them cutting promos referencing the real-life falling out and tension they have. Two mega-stars having a falling out as former best friends is a story that can still have interest moving forward.